AN ALLY OF MINE
Leonel pretended as though he didn't see Simona's furious glare. His senses were focused on the battle around him, sharply directing the movements of his troops. He didn't have the time to baby the emotions of a young woman he hardly knew. The amount that he hoped to gain from returning her puppy beast to her had already been fulfilled; the rest would be decided on very different factors.
It was almost without suspense at all. His battle plan for the Pyius family had been the most robust, containing contingencies for Simona's paternal family, but it seemed that he had thought too much; they weren't actually taking action at all, and he strolled right up to the gates of the Pyius family's palace.
At that moment, Simona stepped out from the palace, her mother following to her side and a large number of Pyius Ancestors appearing with them. High in the skies, the starships rumbled, but Leonel didn't control them to fire.
With his Dream Domain still deployed, Leonel scanned every inch of the planet, not paying attention to the mother-daughter duo immediately. He seemed to be quite calm, and it didn't seem like he was fighting a bloody war at all.
The warriors of the Morales were already valiant, but without the fear of death looming over their heads, they seemed to become like monsters in human skin. Their spears sung, and the eagerness in their eyes was palpable.
This was the last battle Leonel was fighting; he had actually left it for last along with the Quarius family, splitting six of the twelve armies he had had Elder Kriss build toward each one of those families. So, these men and women had already experienced what it meant to fight with Leonel as their general; they had tasted the ease of victory, the thrill of fighting without the worry of death.
It was exhilarating.
The Ancestors thought that their appearance would dampen the spirits of the army they were facing considerably, but what they found instead was a pair of 60 million burning eyes, each one looking as though they would tear even them apart had Leonel not given the command yet.
It was shocking. They knew that the Morales would have high morale, but how could it possibly be this high? Their plan was always to dampen it, but it seemed that the Morales had acted far swifter than they had expected... and it all seemed to be due to this young man they had watched systematically dismantle their young geniuses one by one.
"Leonel!" Simona finally roared, unable to take the silence any longer. Her violet puppy had grown and barked with a raging moment, but it was still far too small to be intimidating. Even so, sensing Simona's fury, it too lashed out.
Leonel finally looked up as though he had finally begun focusing on the situation. "Hm? Oh, hello Simona, how've you been?"Têxt belongs to .
Simona had always been a beauty with an ice-cold disposition, but when she heard these words, she nearly exploded. She grit her teeth hard as her puppy growled.
Simona's mother raised a hand, calling for her daughter to take a breath. This was no longer Leonel Morales, and her daughter didn't seem to have noticed this yet.
"Patriarch Morales, this action of the Morales is indeed a bit inappropriate. The Pyius family never has any intentions of taking action along with the other families. If you continue to press, we'll have no choice but to retaliate in full force."
"HUUUUU"!
The Morales army roared, slamming the butts of their spears into the ground. Their cries resonated and echoed, drowning out the threat in Matriarch Pyius' words as though she had never spoken at all.
Leonel raised a hand, and the roar came to an abrupt stop like a taut string cut cleanly right at its most tense point.
The Matriarch's pupils constricted, but she said nothing, waiting for Leonel's response.
"If you don't want me to attack, it's quite simple, don't you think?" Leonel asked with a smile. "Hand over your World Spirit and subordinate yourselves to the Morales, and you won't have to fight any battles today."
Simona's temper threatened to flare again, but her mother continued to speak calmly.
"Is it a tactic of the Morales to try and humiliate their enemies? That's unbecoming of a warrior."
"Humiliate?" Leonel blinked in confusion. "I was only telling you what you could do to avoid battle."
Matriarch Pyius fell into silence for a long while before she spoke again. "I see now how the Morales treat their allies, why would I place my family's fate in your hands? Prepare for battle."
This time, it was Leonel who laughed, and uproariously at that.
"So you want to use this line of reasoning, in that case, I will make something as clear as possible. Your daughter has never been my ally. She lost that right the moment she chose her life and death over being so. Don't think I forgot that Simona Pyius escaped the Heir Wars the moment the Omann family's starship appeared. You speak of the fate of your family as my ally, but why should I care for allies who vanish the moment the situation shows signs of going poorly?"
Simona's expression turned a blazing shade of red as her rage boiled over. Was she supposed to risk her life against a ship that could take an Ancestor's life in an instant for a mere Heir War?!
"But, truth be told, I don't care about this matter," Leonel's smile grew brighter. "The Heir Wars was a child's game to me, I never took it seriously, and none of your so-called geniuses ever stood a chance against me because even most of your Ancestors wouldn't.
"The real reason I choose to treat you as enemies and not as allies is because I don't have a fetish for being stabbed in the back.
"If today I left here, your Pyius family would wait on the sidelines, biding your time. You would face some pressure here and there as both sides tried to force you to choose a side, but you would ultimately resist.
"And then, when the time came, your true leader, the Godlen family-"
Matriarch Pyius' eyes widened.
"-Would take action at the most opportune moment, and I'd be caught with my pants around my ankles, now wouldn't I?"
Leonel grinned. "So, how about we skip all of that? And I crush you now?"
Matriarch Pyius took a haggard breath, her calm mask slipping somewhat. "I think that you've misunderstood something here, you aren't as clever as you think you are."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Leonel's smile faded, and the air solidified. The Morales began to slam their spears butts onto the ground once more, the roar of their Spear Force spiraling into the air. High in the skies, the Constellation of the Pyius family seemed to flicker in and out of existence, a pressure weakening it considerably.
"Then, let me not mince my words so that we won't have any more misunderstandings," Leonel said lightly. "No family, no organization, no powerhouse that sat by and watched as the Human Domain was attacked and did nothing but sit on their hands...
"Will be considered an ally of mine."
Leonel's voice rumbled.
"Attack."